Since January 1, 2012, through this date, February 20, 2012, rainfall here on my place has equaled what was received in 2011 through July. Winter wheat is looking good and has been good enough to produce some grazing, cow body condition is back up to normal, and I’m “itching” to restock. But, my cautious side says, “Whoa, now, rather than going out and buying a bunch of cows, you better do some planning for the future and for restocking those overgrazed pastures from last year!”

Even though things look good right now, the “experts” are still predicting a drier than normal year in my area. So, even if the pastures are greening up, the mild winter temperatures, plus the moisture, have allowed winter grasses to emerge and grow, maybe I better be a little cautious in my zeal to restock.
I do not claim to be an expert (definition of expert: a person carrying a briefcase and who is more than 50 miles from home) but there is some experience from the past, going through a drought, culling down to the bare minimum, then restocking.

Here are my plans:
1. Reevaluate my current cow herd to be sure all the cows I have left are really good producers. What’s the calving percentage for this spring’s calves?
2. Look at my current bulls for producing the kind of calves for which I’m looking, their age and relationship to my cows/replacement heifers.
3. Evaluate early this spring’s crop of heifer calves and decide if I want to raise my own replacements or go out and buy replacements. From watching the markets, it looks as if replacement heifers/cows will be fetching a premium price.
4. Look at my pastures – what needs to be done and how long do I need to wait to let them be restored from the dry weather? Do I need to spend the money to clear brush and reseed? And, what stocking rate will allow the pastures to continue to improve, if moisture comes?

Want to review some real expert advice, take a look at Stocking Rate and Grazing Management by Charles R. Hart and Bruce B. Carpenter of Texas A&M University.

After looking carefully at all the above, I’ll slowly and painstakingly make my decisions for restocking. What are your plans?

But, then I think, I have computer programs which have helped me keep records throughout the year and all I need to do is generate the information needed by the tax man from those programs.

In years past, preparing information for the tax man consisted of about a week of digging through files, pulling out receipts, invoices, etc., trying to organize them into some orderly system, then putting all that “stuff” in a shoe box, taking it to my tax man. He was usually not smiling when I put the shoe box on his desk. He knew there was a lot of work ahead of him!

Now, I go to my computer, open my CattleMax cattle software program on which I keep my cattle records, generate a cattle inventory for the end of the year, a death report, purchase report, and sales report. Then, I open Quicken®, in which I keep my financial records, and generate a register report –taxes, and what usually was contained in the shoebox in a somewhat disorderly mess, is in a neat file folder in just a few pages.

And, all that is done before receiving the 1099s, interest paid, interest income reports from banks, etc.

I don’t say I’m an expert at gathering information for taxes, but it sure is a lot easier these days than it was a number of years ago.

In relation to taxes, many cattle raisers, like myself, are small operators who have a hard time generating profit from the enterprise. The Internal Revenue Service seems to take a dim view of those who work full time at another job or profession, then try to claim their cattle operation is a for-profit enterprise. In an interesting article from Cattle Today, February, 2007, John Alan Cohan, Attorney at Law, offers tips for livestock owners for helping meet IRS guidelines.

Spring time calving
About the same time as “tax time,” comes spring calving for many cattle raisers, in fact, on my farm, located in west central Texas, “spring calving” begins in January. I know that is not true of more northern operations, but no matter where we’re located, preparations need to be made for those new calves.

Tom Troxel, PhD, University of Arkansas, offers a number of management tips for spring-calving beef herds in an article dated January 4, 2012. Click to read the full article, Tips for Spring-Calving Herds.

Are you prepared for the tax man and spring calving?

My thoughts have been, for quite awhile now, how do I get the few cows I have left through the winter? In my area of Texas, we have been in a severe drought and had extremely high temperatures beginning back in April. Now it’s turning cold and all my cows have to eat is what I am feeding them every day.

Since January 1, 2011, rainfall on my place has totaled 10.65 inches through today, December 2011. There was no hay made in this area, so, to date, to have hay to feed cows, two truckloads of round bales have been bought, brought in from out of state – at an extremely high price, I might add. My cattle herd has been culled, culled deeper, then culled deeper, so that my cow numbers are as low as they have been in 15 years. Many of my neighbors have sold completely out. I am lucky, in that I have not had to worry about water for the cows – I have two wells and a spring-fed creek running through my place.

My hope, in buying hay and feeding my cows, is that I can hang on and be in the cattle business when the drought ends. Then, I can be in a position to sell cattle to those who are restocking. But, the winter presents many problems for “hanging on.” Normally, through the winter, I am grazing wheat and feeding some hay. Even though my normal wheat acreage is planted, some has emerged, but because it is dry, not grown to the point where it can be grazed. My hope is that there will be enough rain coming my way to grow that wheat to minimal grazing stage. Pastures were “grazed out” long ago.

Here’s what I have done to prepare for the winter:
1. Weaned and sold all calves, even though they had to be weaned and sold early.
2. Pregnancy checked all the cows, sold all determined to be “open.”
3. Evaluated and assigned Body Condition Scores to all the cows left after the pregnancy check culling. Any with a BCS of 4 or less were culled and sold.
4. Looked at weaning weights and ratios of the offspring, culled the cows left after the two prior cullings with offspring on the lower end. My record keeping software (CattleMax) helped a lot in this step.
5. Located and purchased what I hope is enough hay to get through the winter with the cows I have left.
6. Determined to keep protein tubs provided for the cows through the winter. Feed cubes as needed, probably every third day.
7. Prayed for rain enough to at least provide some grazing of wheat.

Prospects for that last item on the list do not look good, as meteorologists are predicting the winter to be a dry one in this area.

So, I’m looking for this winter in the cattle business to be the toughest I’ve ever faced in my more than 30 years in the business!

What has been your way of coping with the drought conditions? What are your plans going forward?

Sarah “Sally” Buxkemper, owner and operator of RX Simbrah

The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to preserve the history and highlight the impact of Western women living roughly from the mid-1800s to the present: the artists and writers, champions and competitive performers, entertainers, ranchers (stewards of land and livestock), trailblazers and pioneers. Today, there are over 200 extraordinary women who have been inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame since 1975.

Sally is one of nine inductees for 2011 who will be honored at the 36th Annual Induction Luncheon ceremony at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Ranching for more than 50 years, Sally has developed a business of breeding Simmental and Simbrah and Sim Angus composite seedstock. She was one of the few women to graduate with an Animal Husbandry degree from Oklahoma State University, and was the first woman to be trained by the American Breeders Service to administer artificial insemination.

Congratulations Sally on this incredible recognition!

She and her ranch have been featured in numerous articles, including the CattleMax software website.

Read the RX Simbrah story on the CattleMax website.

Read more about Sally Buxkemper and the other Cowgirl Hall of Fame Inductees.

Why keep cattle records?

Some producers, for years, have not kept records on their cattle at all and instead decide to keep all heifer calves and sell all male calves. While this may continue working for you, the current conditions have more ranchers making deeper culling decisions.

An often used phrase  ”You can’t manage what you don’t measure” comes to mind, and is so true.  With culling and herd reductions become more common, it’s critical to be culling the lowest performing cattle based on their actual numbers and history, rather than relying solely on visual appraisal.

Learn which cattle are truly productive. With good records, it is easy to determine which cows are your top producers and are worthy of maintaining and promoting.

Track sales and purchases for financial records. View your sales and purchases to learn where you are more profitable, and which breeders may be better for your herd. Come tax time, simply click a few buttons to have a list of expenses from last year, a list of cattle you purchased and sold in a nicely formatted report. This is much better (and easier on your accountant/tax preparer) than bringing in piles of receipts and hand-written notes for them to sort through.

Benefits to your record keeping investment

By committing to and using a cattle software program, you’ll realize a variety of returns that pay back your money and time investments over and over.  A few of the many returns on your investment include:

Save time – It does take time to get setup with any new program, but  you’ll realize time savings as you enter new records and update existing ones. Many of us would rather be outside and working with our cattle, so CattleMax is designed to help you make the changes/additions you need, print reports, etc, with minimal time and effort.

Quality and accuracy – Which would you rather work with at your pens or in the pasture – a printed list of cattle that you will be working, or multiple pieces of notebook paper that have a handwritten list of ear tags? Plus, CattleMax helps you be aware of possible data entry problems, therefore helping to keep your records accurate.

Improved decision making – This is a core benefit to keeping better cattle records and can be overlooked.

Understood by others – Your accountant, consultant, veterinarian and others helping with your ranch will appreciate nice, organized reports, plus they will have more information and details to work with thus providing you with even better recommendations.

What records to maintain

While the specific cattle details that are kept may vary by ranch, there are core records that most producers should plan to maintain.

Recommended records: Current herd inventory, herd bulls and breeding cows individually and uniquely identified. Start with gathering as much information about your current herd as you can and enter those details into the software. Later on (as you have the time and interest), you can enter historical records such as previous calving records, sales, treatments, etc.

Nice to have records: Pasture locations for cattle, current cow palpation results, calves individually identified, individual weaning weights for calves. Individual calf records are effective for most cattle ranches, but may be a limited option for others due to herd size, acreage, etc.

Investing in a management system

Wondering what’s involved to get started with an identification system for your herd?

There’s the setup time, which involves tagging cattle (such as with ear tags), entering their information into a cattle software program, and learning your way around your new record keeping solution.

To ensure your records stay current, you’ll want to enter details about your cattle as often as possible, such as the day you gave medical treatments, when a new calf is born, etc. Ideally, you get into a habit or schedule so your records are at least updated once a week.

Also keep in mind the up-front costs, such as  the purchase of a software program, identification needs (tags, applicator, etc) and possibly other hardware such as a weigh scale setup and/or Electronic ID reader.

According to the news release, under the proposed rule, livestock moving interstate would have to be officially identified unless specifically exempted. The proposed rule encourages the use of low-cost technology, and specifies approved forms of official identification for each species, such as metal ear tags for cattle. An efficient and accurate animal disease traceability system helps reduce the number of animals affected by the disease itself or movement restrictions. A traceability system also reduces the time needed to control the spread of the disease and ultimately decreases the cost to producers.

The proposed rule follows the USDA National Animal Identification proposal introduced in 2004, NAIS was a voluntary system based on registration of all premises where livestock or poultry were housed or kept. In 2009, when USDA launched a series of efforts to assess the level of acceptance for NAIS, the findings were that many viewed NAIS as a government-imposed, “one-size-fits all” approach to animal traceability. Producers raised serious concerns about the protection of proprietary information through premise registration and with the need for significantly more flexibility. Due to the level of opposition in the countryside, NAIS was never fully implemented and was discontinued in 2009.

Comments must be received on or before Wednesday, November 9.

Federal eRulemaking Portal - Submit or view comments and to view supporting and related materials available electronically.

The USDA website has additional information regarding the proposed animal traceability rule.

And, we are nearing 70 days of 100 degrees F or higher this summer. So, many neighboring producers have completely liquidated their cattle herds. Those of us who have chosen to try to wait for that drought breaking rain (we’re one day closer today), feed the cattle everything they are getting to eat, and we are facing the next problem – trying to maintain the brood cow’s body condition and get her bred to produce that next calf.

Body condition scores (BCS) are numbers used to suggest the relative fatness or body composition of the cow. For BCS to be most helpful, producers need to calibrate the system under their own conditions with their own cattle, according to Glenn Selk, Extension Animal Reproduction Specialist, Oklahoma State University. A nine-grade system body condition scoring is commonly used in the United States.

A good, basic body condition score tutorial is provided by Dr. Rick Machen, Beef Cattle Specialist, Texas Agrilife Extension, Texas A&M University.

To help maintain my brood cows’ body condition this summer, I have been feeding as good quality hay as I can find, 30% protein range cubes and being sure the cattle are supplied with adequate minerals. Then, to further help the brood cow, weaning has been done earlier than normal, at a calf age of 150 days rather than 180 – 205 days as normal. Within a couple of weeks of weaning, the calves are sold to reduce the amount of feed expense.

Even with all the above, there are some cows in my herd whose body condition scores have fallen below the score of 4 needed, according to the experts, for high percentage rebreeding. So, my next step is to palpate the spring calving cows to be sure they are bred – those palpated “open” are headed to the cull list and sale.

The cow business is tough in Texas right now and we, as cattlemen and women have to make some tough decisions! How are you handling the drought and your cattle herd?

There are basically two ways to fight anthelmintic resistance. The first is to rotate treatments among active ingredients when acceptable parasite control is obtained with more than one type of chemical.

 All currently marketed anthelmintics control brown and barberpole stomach worms. An exception is the L-4 strain of the brown stomach worm on which efficacy has not been demonstrated with morantel. Regardless of this fact, several options exist for stomach worm control that allows rotation between active ingredients.

Cooperia small intestinal worms infest young cattle up to 11 months of age. They are controlled by fenbenzimidazoles,  levamisole, and morantel that allows treatments to be rotated among the three active ingredients. Regardless of the treatment, Cooperia are hard to control partly due to the age of animals being treated.

There are fewer choices for liver fluke control. Albendazole is effective against deer and common liver fluke. The combination of ivermectin and clorsulon controls common liver fluke and has limited effectiveness against the deer fluke. So, there is not much of an opportunity to rotate flukicides.

The second way of combating resistance is to avoid using anthelmintics unless it is absolutely necessary. Checking fecal pats for presence of worm eggs and a count of the number of eggs per gram of feces provides a measure of population fluctuation. Worm counts help determine application timings and are an aid in monitoring treatment effectiveness. If eggs are not found, there is no reason to treat older cattle for stomach worms.

“Liver flukes can be difficult to diagnose, but there are methods and indicators that  help determine if liver flukes are present in a herd,” says Christine Navarre, Extension Veterinarian,Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. “One of the best ways to spot a liver fluke problem is to examine the livers of cattle that die or request information on liver conditions of cattle slaughtered from your herd. You can have feces inspected, but flukes are hard to spot. You also can use the process of elimination. If your cattle aren’t gaining or breeding back properly, and you have tried treating for other parasites or conditions, try treating for liver flukes. If animal condition improves, there is a good chance your herd is infected and you should set up a routine treatment program.”

“In the southern United States there is strong evidence that cows and suckling calves, more than two months old, will benefit from treatment with a macrolide such as ivermectins, eprinomectin, doramectin or moxidectin as they enter summer,” says Tom Craig, Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University. “Treatment can be done when cows are pregnancy checked, the calves vaccinated, or during other activities. When calves are weaned and moved to another pasture, treatment with a benzimidazole will help them get a better start. Cows, and especially first-calf heifers benefit from deworming as they enter winter in the high rainfall areas of the southern United States.

“Stocker calves, especially on permanent pastures, are at high-risk for all parasites,” Craig says. “Therefore, it is essential to treat when they are put on pasture and then repeat treatment one to three months later, depending on the anthelmintic used. Because these calves are at risk and pastures may be laden with resistant worms, it may be advisable to have your veterinarian check fecal samples two to four weeks after treatment to aid in deciding if the anthelmintic actually worked.

Deworming is an important practice for maintaining herd health and obtaining weight gains. The cattle industry will suffer greatly if internal parasites become resistant to treatment. So let’s do our part in avoiding such a catastrophe.

Determining forage quality on rangeland is more difficult because of the number of different plant species and their uneven distribution. Another complicating factor is that cattle are selective in what they choose to eat when given a choice. Because of range plant variability and livestock grazing habits, determining forage quality through plant sampling is very time-consuming. The quickest and best way to determine if cattle are receiving their required nutrition is to observe their feces.

A Forage Quality Photo Guide has been assembled by Lyons, et. al. and is available through the Texas AgriLife Extension Bookstore. Photographs of four different appearances of cow fecal pads are presented in the guide with the following descriptions of how they relate to a cow’s nutrition.

1) “Forage contains greater than 20 percent crude protein with a digestibility of 70 to 80 percent, if the dropping forms around grass stems or whatever is beneath it. The feces is a dark green color and has little shape of its own. Protein and energy availability exceeds the cattle’s requirements for maintenance, growth or lactation.

2) A slight crater-like appearance in the surface of a fecal pad indicates a forage crude protein level between 10 percent and about 17 percent and a digestibility of 61 to 67 percent. In the 10 to 13 percent crude protein range, small folds may be present in the dropping. At these nutritional levels, supplementation or the addition of protein and energy to the diet is not required for mature cows. Forage, that creates droppings like this, should support one pound to 1.5 pounds average daily gain on heifers and steers.

3) When a dropping exhibits flat folds, forage crude protein level is between six and nine percent and digestibility is from 58 to 63 percent. As forage quality increases within these ranges, the folds become smaller. Droppings with folds indicate forage quality is adequate to supply maintenance requirements for mature cows. Minimal weight gain in replacement heifers and stocker cattle should be expected.

4) Forage crude protein level of five percent or less and digestibility at or below 56 percent is depicted by cow feces pads resembling stacks of hard dry rings. These droppings indicate that forage is below the maintenance requirements for all classes of beef cattle. Forage digestibility and intake may increase with protein supplementation.

Increased levels of cattle activity can result in loose droppings. To obtain good forage quality estimates, evaluate cattle dropping consistency only after they have undergone a rest period.”

These evaluations allow a producer to determine if range forage has a nutritional deficit. If a deficit does exist, the evaluations are accurate enough for determining the type and amount of needed nutrient supplement. Feces pad observations provide prompt indications of nutritional deficits and allows the problem to be corrected within a 48- to 72-hour period.

It is essential that the buyer have a clear focus on how the ranch is to be used and a business plan to guide the selection. A good business plan includes a mission and vision for the planned enterprise, production goals, necessary ranch characteristics and production capabilities and estimated operational expenses, income and profits. The plan also contains a list of needed equipment, buildings and other facilities and required personnel.  The business plan is compared with evaluations of available ranches to determine which property has the greatest possibility of producing expected performance. Results of the comparisons are used to estimate costs of needed improvements and renovations necessary to achieve desired production and in turn determine the true value of each candidate property.

The amount of existing nutritious palatable grass is a major decision factor in selecting a ranch for cattle production. A sufficient supply of standing forage is the most economical way to feed a cow and is essential for producing a profit. Research the area in which a prospective ranch is located. Learn how many stocking units a good pasture can carry while maintaining condition. Ask the owner of the prospective ranch for his stocking rate. What is the condition of his pastures? Do they have at least six inches of grass stubble height or have the pastures been grazed to the ground? If pastures have been abused, they will need two or three years of rest before they are grazed again. Depending upon the area, fertilization and reseeding may be required for pasture restoration. Abused pastures lower a ranch’s value and restoration costs should be considered before purchasing the property.

Obtain a description of a climax community for the area in which a prospective ranch is located. Compare a plant species inventory of the prospective ranch with the climax community description. This comparison provides the range condition and use history. If pastures have between 76 and 100 percent of the original plant community present, their condition is excellent. They are in good condition if 51 to 75 percent of the vegetation is climax plants and they are in fair condition if 26 to 50 percent of the vegetation is climax. If less than 25 percent of the vegetation is climax, the pastures are in poor condition. Professional range management specialists with the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), state university extension services or private consultant companies can evaluate pasture conditions if you are not trained in these techniques.

In addition to vegetation quality, evaluate pastures for shade and water availability. Cattle need shade whether it is trees or sheds and there should be enough shade to accommodate the total number of cattle in the pasture. Pastures should also contain a sufficient number of clean water sources. A cow should not be required to walk more than a mile for water.

After pasture evaluation, look at the facilities. Are the fences and corrals in good condition and in the right places for efficient herd management? Do the necessary buildings exist and are they in good condition? Are there roads that provide access to the ranch in all types of weather?

Ranch property should not be purchased until an evaluation of its production potential is completed.